An unexpectedly tender ode to passing one’s prime while also finding new joys in fostering next-generation talent.
An aging wrestler guides his young sister through the ups and downs of the dangerous sport.
“Man is meat.” So begins the saga of 26-year-old over-the-hill wrestler Domingo Contreras and his sister, Pilar, soon to be 18 and already eager to don the spandex and lace-ups. Koslowski gives equal attention to the bonds of their relationship and the culture of the industry. Pilar is ready to prove herself and commits her body and soul to the profession, enduring unspeakable punishment in so doing. “There was pain, and she didn’t care. She transformed it into adrenaline, focus, the drive to take on more.” Speaking to the novel’s esoteric title—“kayfabe [was] the closely guarded secret that wrestling was theater”—Koslowski’s story is not bashful about depicting the staged theatrics of professional wrestling. While it’s largely performance-based and dedicated to maintaining an illusion, it’s still a sport requiring great skill and athleticism, and a risky one at that: “A boxing ring could kill a wrestler, and the give of a wrestling canvas could snap untrained ligaments.” The pathos is aplenty, but never maudlin, as Dom reckons with his own physical deterioration while mentoring his young sister to take his place. “As if his oil tank had burned dry, Dom’s muscles seized, and he ground to a halt.” Though the novel could have been much shorter, there is a visceral, evocative energy to the descriptions that help it along: “The contortion was as elegant as ballet, as repugnant as torture porn.” Koslowski does a capable job of developing a convincing milieu and puts his characters through their paces with pitiless yet compassionate precision. This is a love letter to showmanship with enough high stakes, insider trivia, and personal struggle to make it enormously readable.
An unexpectedly tender ode to passing one’s prime while also finding new joys in fostering next-generation talent.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781952119859
Page Count: 408
Publisher: McSweeney’s
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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